Being miserable with a cold this last week, I couldn't help but look up various information about colds, rhinoviruses, potential treatments, and whatnot online. Apparently, megadoses of vitamin C, zinc treatments, and every other attempted preventative measure have all failed to yield conclusive results in clinical trials.

In fact, the only effective treatment is alleviating the symptoms while the body's immune system takes care of business. Lying there sniffling and coughing, I wondered about drugs that might boost a patient's white blood cell count at the onset of symptoms, or something akin to blood doping. I'd heard about blood doping from a story about cheating in athletics (I think on 60 Minutes). It basically involves saving your own blood, and then transfusing it back into yourself right before a big sporting event in order to boost your red blood cell count and increase the transport of oxygen in the blood. I wonder what the effect (if any) of such self-infusions would have in the early stages of the common cold.